It has been almost a year since the pandemic started, but the situation is worst than ever. In this circumstance where we cannot predict when this stressful time ends, I suggest you to watch (or re-watch) the film Weathering with You. It is a film made by director Makoto Shinkai in 2019, before the pandemic. We can receive a message that only makes sense to us because we live in this unusual time.
Spoiler Alert: The following includes heavy spoilers. Please read at your own risk.
A super short summary of the film (only the essential parts)
It starts off with Hodaka, a boy who has run away from home, and Hina, a girl who can control the weather, who meet in Tokyo. Hina and Hodaka form a business where they change the weather as requested by their clients. The business was a success, except that there was a consequence for changing the weather. After some time, days of extreme weather start to occur and as Hina uses her power, her body gradually turns transparent. She had to become a human sacrifice to bring back the weather. To do so, Hina vanishes, and the sky clears. But Hodaka, who cannot accept that she’s gone, travels to the sky to bring her back. He succeeds, though as Hina comes home, Tokyo is covered with rain again. Hodaka is then arrested for the crimes he committed in order to take back Hina, then sent back home outside of Tokyo.
Three years later, the rain in Tokyo didn’t stop since the day Hina came back. Many of the low buildings sank underwater, entirely changing peoples’ lives in Tokyo. At the end of the film, Hodaka comes back to Tokyo, meets the side characters he met 3 years ago, and finally reunites with Hina.
My Thoughts
If you watched the film, you’d notice that the situation under pandemic and this film’s ending, Tokyo under eternal rain, is very similar. People in raincoats or holding umbrellas at the end of the film are the masks and sanitizer in our world. The never-ending rain is the pandemic now.
The side characters that Hodaka meets again at the end of the film are the ones carrying the message that resonates with us under this pandemic. Their circumstance is similar to us since they didn’t choose to live in eternal rain. Suddenly without any sign, their lives changed completely. When Hodaka meets with them, they seem to be calm and fully accepting of the situation. Below is one memorable dialogue from those people.
“The world has been crazy anyway（世界なんてさどうせもともと狂ってんだから）”
-Keisuke Suda
Having said that, he changes the topic and starts talking happily about his daughter. He does not stress out that the rain doesn’t stop but just simply enjoys his life now.
These characters changed my perspective on how I want to live under the pandemic. Before watching this film, I often used to feel anxiety since nothing is changing for the better. Watching the scene of eternal rain was like watching the pandemic from an objective point of view. I noticed that we don’t have a choice other than to keep living in this world. If then, rather than thinking of the things we can’t do, it will be much easier if we accepted the world as it is now, and began enjoying it. Don’t get me wrong, I really hope that the pandemic will be over. However, until then, let us live our lives as much as we can.